UAHC Supports Right of Soviet Jews to Emigrate to Any Land They Wish

May 20, 1980

RYE, N.Y. (May. 19)

The Union of American Hebrew Congregations (UAHC), in a resolution adopted by its national board of trustees, criticized “Jewish voices … seeking to limit freedom of choice for emigrating Soviet Jews” and voted “to extend the hand of support and friendship to Soviet Jews who freely choose to live in the U.S. or Canada.”

Betsy Golomb, chairman of the UAHC Committee on Soviet Jewry, said the UAHC “commends the life-giving assistance programs carried out by HIAS, which works so effectively in support of Soviet Jewish emigres seeking to live as free men and women and as Jews in lands of their choice.”

The resolution, adopted at the board’s semi-annual meeting here yesterday, declared: “The UAHC and its constituent groups have in the past confirmed the traditional morality of pidyon sh’vuim — redemption of captives …. We further urge our members to make every effort to integrate these immigrants into our congregations and communities so that they and their children will in fact live as Jews.”